In Pan’s Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno), the new film from Mexican-born director Guillermo del Toro, fairy tales are terrifying. This is how fairy tales are supposed to be: coded ways of telling children about the harsh realities of adult life. As the goal of American parenting has become shielding children from reality, as if it did not exist, fairy tales have in turn become been watered down and made less frightening.
In the case of Ofelia, a young girl obsessed with fairy tales (Ivana Baquero), her imagination is as fraught with danger and terror as her life. Her mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil), lost her husband during the Spanish Civil War. After remarrying a sadistic Fascist officer, Capitán Vidal (Sergi López), whose baby she is carrying, she takes Ofelia to stay with her new husband in the mountains.
Capitán Vidal, with the smug approval of the Spanish Church behind him, is trying to root out the last remnants of the Republican opposition. His methods are ruthless: torture sessions and summary executions that del Toro shows in graphic detail (making this movie emphatically not for children or the squeamish). Ofelia understands that she and her mother are in Capitán Vidal’s power, and remain safe mostly because he is obsessed with the son he firmly believes Carmen is about to bear. When it becomes clear that the pregnancy is a grave threat to his new wife’s health, Vidal orders her doctor to save the child at all costs, even Carmen’s life. The only person able to help Ofelia is Vidal’s housekeeper, Mercedes (a pretty and fastidious Maribel Verdú), a local woman taking many risks to help the Republican fugitives. She becomes a sort of fairy godmother.
With this life as background, it is hardly surprising that Ofelia retreats into a dream world, in which she is a princess, the lost daughter of the king and queen of another world. When she arrives at her stepfather’s house, she discovers the labyrinth, a mysterious stone structure overgrown with weeds. Guided by insect-like fairies and a creepy faun (Doug Jones, with digital assistance), she follows instructions in a magic book, which lead her on a series of quests to return to her real home.
